A Custom CO is a first for me too.
(we shall never speak of the two failures beforehand).

I am also stuck to my phone so I reeeeally don't feel like messing with format code.

A Custom CO I'm working on because I can. I'm trying to refine him and make sure he isn't broken but isn't too much at a disadvantage. Any feedback would be much appreciated!



Dimitri
Army: Blue Moon

Physical Description: Nearly fifty years of age, Dimitri is an aging, graying man with a tall frame with slight muscle, yet he appears quite thin. He is dressed in a fine silver suit and red tie. His skin is freshly wrinkled, his hair is straight shoulder length, faded black beginning to gray. His eyes are a faded periwinkle and his features are sharp.

Bio: Growing up in the Highlands of Blue Moon by the ocean across from Orange Star, Dimitri was always seen as an odd child. He had an intense interest in puzzle solving, from jigsaws to intricate strategy games. He would often spend his time alone, only participating in a group when forced. As a result, he was very rehearsed and quiet, only acting out of necessity.

He would earn himself a scholarship into a school that, among other things, trained rescue teams. He worked with the teams, eventually proposing successful strategies that would solve situations that seemed impossible.

Eventually, with much decorum and recommendations, he would work his way into the army, leading reconnaissance teams while tensions with Orange Star were high in a form of Cold War. After awhile, he went undercover under the freshly instated Commander Grit during the war, leading a crew to find any Intel to give the CO an advantage in the battles. They would often intercept enemy captures, killing and capturing the OS soldiers during their conquest. During this time, Dimitri would lead a squadron in this battle and would himself learn how the individual soldiers worked to create a fully functioning unit of the Blue Moon army, a lesson that would stay with him. He would find ways to keep the squadron safe, with rarely a casualty being taken.

When the Black Hole armies, under the command of Sturm and the clone of Andy, started their siege in Blue Moon, Dimitri followed a hunch and investigated with his group to find that Orange Star had not instigated the attack, with Andy being a Junior Officer being in training under Nell. He submitted his findings to Olaf, who disregarded them, blinded by his grudge against Orange Star. Grit was more supportive of his spy, but was unable to persuade Olaf during the course of the first war against Black Hole; nevertheless, the Intel combined with Grit's former allegiance with his opponent, the sharpshooters' actions were tinged with hesitancy and reluctance until the fight's end. After the war, it was he who provoked Olaf to apologize to Dimitri and publicly honor him for his work in the war (much to Dimitri's chagrin.)

During the Second War, it was Dimitri who was on the scene when Olaf's hometown was destroyed by Lash. He worked tirelessly to rescue citizens, calling upon his experience with the rescue teams, and found ways for citizens to reserve resources. It was he who tipped the Blue Moon army to the alleged info on Neotank production hidden within one of the army's hidden strongholds. For his impacting service in the city, Olaf again commended him publicly (again to Dimitri's annoyance).

During the second war and through its conclusion, Grit would train Dimitri into becoming a CO, having been impressed by his contributions. Drawing upon age and experience, he caught on quickly, although his methods were considered quite unconventional. Although his units were not as powerful as others, Dimitri imparted wisdom on survival and conservation. His footsoldiers were especially proficient. He also pledged support from his specially trained espionage teams when needed.

To this day, Dimitri remains an effective commander who excels in defense and attrition. He is still antisocial and reserved in personality, but since those traits have served him well so far he has no plans to change. However, his lessons and experience as a team leader have stuck with him throughout all of his years.

The basis behind his pros and cons:
Having been trained in the same way Dimitri was as an espionage agent and leader, the footsoldiers are adept at survival, even through disastrous weather. The rest of the units pertain that quality, albeit on a lesser level. The soldiers are also adept at managing fuel and ammo, whether through management or acquirement through any method. However, the firepower of all of his non-infantry units are below average due to the focus on the underlying aspects of the battle and Dimitri's own inexperience in offensive combat.

CO Power in method:

The footsoldiers rally together and bring forth the extra effort to stay protected, and their defensive capabilities increase. Also, Dimitri sends his special teams out to the cities to antagonize capturing enemy infantry and provide a more hostile front for occupying enemy units. In addition, replenishment for all forces are delivered. During the SCO, the special teams work harder to fend off capturing enemy soldiers, and cause problems throughout the enemy army, lowering their defensive abilities.


A reserved, thoughtful former spy with experience as a field leader. Has a dry, sarcastic sense of humor.

Hit: Serenity
Miss: Insanity

Army has boosted defense, especially infantry. Fuel and ammo supplies are also boosted. Non-infantry units have less firepower.

CO Power: Attrition
Footsoldier defense increases further. Enemies lose defense on cities and capturing units lose 2HP. All units refueled and restocked.

SCO Power: Absolution
Footsoldiers defense increases and recover 2HP. All enemy units' defense decreases. All capturing units lose 2HP. All units refueled and restocked.

Pros
100/120 foot soldiers, immune to weather
150% ammo (4 shots increases to 6, rounds down)
75% fuel burning rate. (8 fuel rate reduced to 6, rounds down)

Cons
90/110 units

CO Power Bar: xxxXXXX

CO Power- Attrition
Footsoldier defense increases to 140%.
All enemy units lose all three terrain stars on cities.
Any capturing enemy inf/mechs lose 2HP.
Units are refueled and restocked.

CO Power Quotes
"We are the straw to break the camel's back."
"An easy fight? You should be so fortunate."
"And the battle's but begun!"

SCO Power: Absolution
Footsoldiers defense increases to 140%
All footsoldiers' health increased by 2HP.
All enemy units' defense decreases by 10%
All capturing inf/mechs lose 3HP

SCO Quotes:
"I believe you'll find this to be simply marvelous."
"We've weathered worse storms! What's one more?"
"This is our defining hour."

Winning Quotes:
"It is complete."
"Thank you for your glowing participation."
"We enter as soldiers, we leave as legends!"

A CO needs a game to be of any use, the question, therefore, is which one?

Oh, erm, AW2.

Not that there's much practical difference between AW2 and AWDS seeing as they follow the exact same rules of balance.

Anyway, this is much better than the version you sent me via email.

AW2 and DS play similarly at surface level; there are a few differences that change things up a bit. The obvious one is the tag system which has had no standing with competitive audiences. But, there is also the way Powers are charged: DS units are assigned, seemingly arbitrarily, their own worth on the Power meter. Most notably, Infantry are worth 0.4 of a star whereas in AW2 they are worth about 0.1. The result is greater weight on a CO's Powers versus Day to Days as in AW2 and, by extension, AWBW. Sensei, for example, is already broken in AW2; in DS, he is far and away the strongest CO on standard maps. Mass Damage Powers are more harmful in DS since they appear more frequently, draining enemy HP and thus momentum without charging the enemy's meter. The ramifications go on.

As for this CO, well, I don't see any sort of synergy in its skill set, to be frank. Certainly, you can always explain away their reasons for being in elaborate backstories or devise a hyper-competent, standardised build based on competition data, but these go against AW's precedents; for the former you might as well roleplay, for the latter you are far better off playing chess.

No, I have tested it and there's no practical difference in AW2. If a given map lets, say, Max get a SCOP off every four days in AWDS, he'll get it every 5 or 6 days in AW2. That's not enough of a difference to significantly impact the flow of the game. If AWBW is slower than that, it's because Amarriner screwed up.

I can see why you would think that, but I have to respectfully disagree. Sitting down to write up Dimitri, I wanted to write a CO who was all about defense. It'd be easy enough to write the 90/110 and just leave, but every fan and their mother has done that. I decided to specialize his overall unit defense by making his infantry/mechs slightly stronger to help with captures and meatshielding, and to boost his ammo and fuel, which isn't a big deal, especially on most of the maps that Dimitri is useful on, but secures the stronghold he can create with less evacuation trips to refuel/resupply.

To give him a disadvantage, I lowered his offensive capabilities, so that while he was able to keep a strong front for himself, he had a harder time breaking through someone else's. It'd be all about getting the first strike- with units that both achieve less damage than normal (due to Dimitri's firepower and defense), the counterattack is less potent. This involves more strategic, deliberate playing.

What gives Dimitri an edge is his ability to meatshield with infantry and mechs, as well as their ability to protect themselves whilst capturing better than common infantry. It's not as miraculous a boost as Sami, goddess of war, but a 6hp infantry is better than a 4hp one, and with Dimitri having an infantry heavy army, joining is always an option. Therefore, the lack of an easy OHKO for infantry is a boost for Dimitri to gain a larger financial foothold and tech up faster than his opponent (so long as they aren't broken). Infantry defense lets Dimitri accomplish the little extra more to negate the stalemate his other d2d encourages.

What really turns the tides is his COP and SCOP. The COP is built more for early battles- defense boosts for infantry strengthens capturing ability, and the capturing of the enemy is hindered with an HP hit and less defense on cities. Primarily, that's what the COP is for- the capturing game.

The SCOP is for the heat of the slog. It lowers the defense on all enemy units, giving Dimitri the upper hand power-wise since he presumably gets the extra 10% All CO Powers get, making the stat game 100/90 vs 90/120 (although I'm not sure if that's considered a bit too much.) In addition, the enemy infantry is again weakened, hindering their captures and their meatshields while Dimitri's get some of their own strength back. With this, he is able to get a giant push back for one turn.

A bit long winded, but yeah. That's my reasoning by Dimitri- he is an all around defense CO- defense in units, defense in capturing, defense in maintenance, defense in meatshields- with his powers of attrition around to push the tides without negating his weakness.

- Fuel and ammo are largely not that important in competitive AW2 and AWDS. It is rare to run out of fuel and ammo in those games, with some rare exceptions (extreme stalemate situations, subs, maybe Megatanks or something).

- Infantry are extremely strong defensive units in both AW2 and AWDS as it is. What sort of interesting gameplay do you expect to emerge from buffing them further? I would expect slower speed and greater homogeny, personally.

- What do you expect the weather immunity for infantry to do? Keep in mind that most competitive players tend to shy away from setting the weather to Random.

I have always preferred function over form. I only brought up the CO's synergy and such fluff since, well, until it's put in a game, it's just words. However, as BG stated, defense COs aren't terribly conducive to interesting gameplay. They may have a place in hyper-offensive settings, but ultimately their purpose is to stall, which many current players find unappealing given their experience with the game. You have to think of your CO as a product and ways to make it appealing to players, I'm afraid. This means you may have to compromise on certain aspects of it - the neverending battle between creators and consumers.

So FHQ, how did you arrive at your results? You know, CW has a mostly functional DS mode if you'd care to test your findings against other players. If you prefer ROM or other method, you'll have to divulge its workings.

Just playing against my bro on the cartridge. I still have a gameboy player for my Gamecube, so sometimes we'll play a round when he's over. Probably not the most scientific method, but hey, it's something.